A/N: Here's the 3rd.... Much thanks for Lady Starlight looking this chapter over. Any mistakes are purely my own, not hers. And yes this universe isn't mine, more the pity.
Chapter 3: A Reunion at the Burrow
*********************The Burrow******************************
12:05 pm
A rainbow fall of light and a rush of sound erupted on the lawn of the ancient Weasley home as Harry and Hermione arrived. Harry's hands flashed out and caught hers as she stumbled from the momentum shift inherent in Portkey travel. She dropped them and smiled at him gratefully as she reached back to check her pack. Harry did the same, his fingers brushing lightly over the hilt of the invisible Gryffindor sword.
Mrs. Weasley had appeared at the commotion, and rushed forward. She enveloped Harry in a huge hug. "I am so glad you are here Harry dear." She glanced over at Hermione, and back at Harry, "Ginny and Ron are up at the pitch." She pointed up the hill were several brooms could be seen swooping back and forth. She motioned to their packs, "Let me have those I'll put them up with Ginny and Ron." Harry and Hermione shared a glance and shrugged. They handed their packs over, "Hermione my dear, I am afraid that you will be a bit crowded, Luna is staying with Ginny as well, her father had to stay in London for a while." Hermione just waved in response as she followed Harry on their slow trek up the hill.
Spotting them on the way up, Ron and Ginny banked over and swooped down to land next to them. Immediately Ron pulled
Hermione into a hug, which she returned and gave him a peck on the cheek. He looked oddly disappointed as Hermione
stepped back and tucked an errant lock behind her ear. Ginny and Harry shared a small smile and an only somewhat
awkward hug. A faint flowery smell reached his nose, but oddly enough it vanished as he glanced back to notice Hermione
quietly telling Ron something. Ron didn't look as if he particularly liked it, but he glanced over at Harry and
nodded.
"Harry." Ginny said as she grabbed his arms and pulled him over to her broom. "Look what Bill got me for
my birthday. It's a Firebolt, just like yours. He got it from a coworker who sold it used, cheap. He gave it to me
early so I could start working it up for the season."
"Yeah Ginny," Harry agreed as he scanned around to look for Ron and Hermione. They had vanished. He frowned, he wanted to talk to his other best friend before the wedding tomorrow. "It's just like mine. You should be awesome at Quidditch this year."
"Too bad you lot won't be there." Ginny said sadly. "Gryffindor would be unstoppable."
"Actually," Harry corrected her, he might as well, she would find out soon enough anyway. "Hermione and I talked to McGonagall just this morning, we are returning as Head students, at least for now. We need to learn all that we can." He shrugged, "I doubt I am going to play Quidditch at all...in fact I need to tell McGonagall that I'm giving up the Captain's slot."
"Then Harry..." she began, her eyes lighting up.
"No Ginny." Harry said kindly, "None of my reasons have changed. Now if you will excuse me, I need to find Hermione and Ron." Ginny watched silently as he walked off, then as he vanished out of sight, she sprinted for the house for the extendable ears she had secreted there along with various other...items that had proven helpful last year.
Harry had caught none of that. He strolled across the lawn and walked around the house. Unless you knew better, one would have never known this backyard belonged to the Weasley clan. The garden was immaculate, with a tall, white arch at one end, lit softly with fairy lights. Twin columns of seats sat on either side of a wide, red-carpeted aisle. Ribbons in white and gold encapsulated the seats and Harry nodded, pleased with the environs for Bill and Fleur's wedding tomorrow. A small platform was situated under the arch and knelt down facing the other way; a tall, thin girl with long, platinum blond hair was working on something. She glanced back and a wide smile blossomed on her face. She ran down the aisle and swept Harry into a hug. "'arry...iz good to zee you again."
"Yeah Fleur." Harry replied with a small grin, "you too. Have you seen Ron or Hermione?"
"They iz up at the creek, I believe." She replied, her smile frozen in place. She watched as he walked in the direction she had indicated and with a small shrug she went back to work.
As Harry approached he could hear raised voices. He sighed softly to himself and headed closer, only to stop as he heard his name. He paused just out of sight.
"What Ron?" Hermione snapped.
"I thought that we were going on this mission with Harry, not back to school. Did you convince Harry to go just so you could be Head Girl and take your NEWTs?" Ron snarled and Harry started to reveal himself, but Hermione beat him to the retort.
"No you dufus. Yes I wanted to be at school, but I want Voldemort dead far worse. Did you listen to me at all? We decided use the school as a base, it gives us advantages that we wouldn't otherwise have."
"So you and Harry can leave without me, with your fancy Portkeys?" Ron said bitterly. He spun and glared at her, "Is that why you won't hardly even return a hug, let alone kiss your boyfriend, you would rather be with Harry? You know Ginny still fancies him? Do you really want to be a scarlet woman?"
Hermione took a startled breath, as did Harry in his unwitting eavesdropping spot. As did another red-haired member of the clan hidden on the other side of the clearing. Three pairs of ears waited on her response. "Honestly Ron," she snapped briskly, "I don't remember being your girlfriend. A few stolen snogs don't make a relationship."
"So what does Hermione?" Ron replied tiredly as the fire went out in his voice. "Hanging out at his aunt's house and then at Hogwarts? You could have come and got me before you two talked to McGonagall. Now I have to explain things to mum, that I now will be back at school."
"It was a spur of the moment thing; we had to make a decision." Hermione didn't even try to hide the exasperated tone to her voice. "Not everything revolves around you Ronald."
"No, I guess it revolves around Harry then. Why don't you just go be with him? He gets everything else anyway." Ron snapped and a crack of sound echoed in the woods as Hermione's hand whipped around and intersected his jaw. Hurried footsteps thundered in the woods, directly towards Harry, and he took a panicked breath. He glanced over to either side, and then with a sudden realization, his hand dove into a thigh pocket of his khakis. A snap of his wrist, and a practiced twirl of the silvery cloak and he vanished. It was just in time, as a chestnut-haired whirlwind thundered past on her way into the woods. Harry glanced back towards Ron, and then in the direction that Hermione had gone, torn between finishing the job Hermione had started with his fists or his wand or making sure she was ok.
Hermione won on two counts, he had never meant to overhear their argument, so he could never admit he had heard it. And he knew that Hermione would be angry with him if he completed her work for her. He took off, quickly casting a Silencio on his steps to deaden the swish of the leaves coating the forest floor as he followed Hermione. Even though the forest surrounding the Weasley house was relatively tame, she wouldn't be able to protect herself from a Pygmy Puff in her current condition.
After following her steps for several minutes Harry heard them stop. He paused, thinking furiously as he thought of some valid reason for him to find her. A flash back to fourth year and he had his answer...if it worked, because if it didn't she would know. He held out his hand with his wand held flat on the palm. "Point me to Hermione." He whispered with a touch of desperation and as in answer to his prayers the wand spun around five times, before the tip settled pointing towards Hermione. Harry quickly refolded the cloak and stowed it. He canceled the Silencio and made a great deal of noise as he walked forward, shouting, "HERMIONE."
"Here Harry." A soft, resigned soprano replied and he walked into the clearing. Hermione was sitting on a downed log, and something bothered him greatly, even more than it usually did after one of their fights, as he saw her angrily wipe away tears. Harry sat down next to her, about a foot away and waited. "How did you find me Harry?" A slightly accusatory note was in her voice.
Harry carefully did not wipe away a bead of sweat from his brow as he shrugged. "Did you know that the point me spell will find people? I just tried it and it worked."
"No it doesn't" Hermione disagreed with a small glare. Harry just repeated his earlier trick, and her eyes grew wide, "Ok...weird. I guess you did a Potter." She gave him a tiny, fleeting smile, "You did your "make the spell do what I want thing". I would think you were Dumbledore if you were taller and had a beard." Both of them realized what she had said at the same time and an awkward silence fell over the clearing.
Harry broke it after a minute; "Dumbledore wouldn't want us to be sad every time his name came up in conversation. Hermione nodded. "Are you ok Hermione? What's wrong?" He asked innocently as if he had never heard anything. And he was still unsure of what he had truly heard. Were they together? Had they broken up...had they just broken up? Harry didn't know what to think.
"Just sit with me here a bit Harry, before we go back." Hermione said and they sat together for a time that neither of them bothered to measure before heading back without another word shared between them, especially not over conversations not heard.
Ginny eased open the door to her room, to find, sprawled out on a hastily added camp bed, a slender blond-haired girl. Luna rolled over, her odd silvery-gray eyes as wide as ever as she smiled languorously and stretched, her spine popping loudly. "Did you overhear another of their fights?" she asked with a curious note in her otherwise airy voice. "I would like them to stop soon; they are disturbing the Irish winged rats that I spotted the other day in the glade. They would be a good omen for tomorrow if they stay around." Luna sat up and started weaving her long, dirty-blonde hair into a loose braid. She had changed over the almost two years since she had first shared a compartment with the trio, Ginny and Neville. Her hair was no longer a tangled mess, her eyes were clear, bright and held an odd, knowing gaze and as she stretched again, Ginny wondered absently that after what she had overheard, if that her decidedly odd friend might really have a chance with her brother if she applied herself...and if other things were to cease.
Ginny walked over to the cot next to Luna's which now held Hermione's pack. She moved it aside, and resisted the temptation to investigate the odd metallic clanks that came from it. She smiled, slightly unconvincingly, "What makes you think I overheard them fighting?"
Luna turned and looked at her, and Ginny paused. The moment passed as Luna turned away to play idly with a loose thread on the hem of her cutoffs. "Everyone else has." She shrugged and stood. She checked the fall of a pair of radish earrings in the mirror. Her eyes caught Ginny's bright, brown ones in the reflection "come clean with him, with them, Ginevra." Luna said suddenly.
"W...what do you mean?" Ginny replied hastily, instantly unnerved as Luna's eyes hardened again for the briefest of instants.
Luna looked down as she inspected a butterbeer-bottle cap necklace hanging on her chest. "He's as smart as his mother Ginny, and she's the brightest one since Rowena... Eventually their innate magic will provide them immunity and you know that they will figure it out. I suspect that they are already wondering what happened. They weren't the same last year Ginny and deep inside they know it."
"What?" Ginny repeated, though she knew quite well what the odd girl was talking about. She thought over her steps, wondered where she could have slipped up.
Luna shrugged, "if they find out what has happened to them, before you come clean. Well you know their tempers. I expect that Riddle will eventually come to regret ever crossing either one of them; you really don't want to be the recipient of their ire. You are a powerful witch Ginny, but she's like a bonfire to your candle. She just doesn't know it yet."
"You want Ron for yourself, you're just jealous of her." Ginny accused and crossed to her bed. She picked up the purple ball of fluff on her pillow and started petting it, it crooned softly.
"A bit, yes." Luna agreed amicably. "But I know all will work out in the end as it should be. There are universes where he ends up with me, and those in which he ends up with her." She smiled, showing all of her teeth, "and there are those where he ends up with Draco, however the latter is not this one. I have few enough friends that I would sow discord among them, please don't do it here."
Luna got up and left the room, and Ginny followed her all the way out. She watched the door close quietly behind the odd witch and looked down at her Pigmy Puff, Arnold. "I just have to be with him, I mean, he's.... and..." she trailed off hugging her furball, who cooed softly.
8:30 pm
All of the teens crowded into Harry and Ron's room, perching here and there on Ron's bed, Harry's cot and as Ginny had done, on the window seat that once had held Ron's aquarium of frogspawn. Ron sat on his bed, with Hermione next to him, but at least a foot away. She had just glared at him when he had patted the bed next to him and sat. Harry was leaning on the footboard facing the rest of them, while Luna, Fred and George sat on Harry's cot watching him.
Harry glanced over at Hermione, and she nodded. She flicked her wand towards the door and an Imperturbable charm flashed into existence. He caught hers and Ron's eyes then looked at the room as a whole. "As you may or may not know plans have changed somewhat, Hermione, Ron and I will be returning to Hogwarts in the fall. And along with that, Hermione and I have accepted the Head Students slots for the coming year."
"Accepted?" Fred asked, "It sounds like you are not too happy about that mate."
"See Ronniekins," George put in, "Harry knows the value of being perfect...not at all. So Harry what did she have to give you?"
"There were concessions granted, yes."
"Good," Fred rubbed his hands together gleefully; "so Harry have we ever talked to you about becoming a full partner?"
"We are in a war for survival." Harry snapped back flatly, he took a breath, "sorry, Fred, but that's the truth, anything that McGonagall agreed to, will be used to fight Voldemort," the usual quivering except for Hermione who seemed proud for some reason. "No what we called you guys here for is to let you in on what we can. McGonagall has agreed to let us restart the DA." Luna beamed and Harry gave her a small nod. "The ones of you here, plus Neville, will be leading the group, except for you and you," he nodded at Fred and George. "I want you to work up a set of gear for each of the members of the DA, make it fifty sets, all the good stuff, guys. When you get them done, let me or Hermione know and we will make sure you get paid. But we might not be easy to get a hold of until school starts. I want every kit ready on September 1 in any case, and in my hands or at the school."
"No big, Harry, we know you are good for it. We might even throw you in some new toys." George replied gleefully.
"Guys?" they nodded, "lethal is fine." The twins became instantly sober and the rest of the room silent. Harry looked at each of them in turn. "I won't lie to any of you, this is not some adventure, not some child's game any longer. If any of you want out, now is the time. I will be giving Neville an opportunity when I next see him, tomorrow if I can get him aside. You have already seen it in action at Hogwarts, Dumbledore is dead." Harry's voice was hard, "we are all going to have to do and see things that we would rather anyone not do or see." His eyes flicked to Hermione and Ron's. She nodded hesitantly while Ron frowned slightly, but nodded as well. "Honestly, there is every chance that we will lose. I will try my best to make sure that does not happen, but..." He shrugged. "As well, all of you will have to under go periodic Veritaserum and Imperious testing to make sure that no one has managed to subvert any of you. That goes for all of the members of the DA as well as the Hogwarts staff."
A flash of fear slipped across Ginny's face, but was gone before Harry could catch it. "Finally, I do have good news on one front, Lupin will be back to teach DADA." Everyone in the room smiled at that. "Ok that's it." Harry nodded and started to wave his wand to cancel Hermione's charm.
"Harry?"
"Yeah Ginny?" Harry turned to her.
"Why can't I...we, come with you until school starts? And where will you be anyway, what will you be doing that..."
"You can't Ginny." Harry replied shortly, as he shook his head, and cancelled the protective charm. He left the room without another word, after a minute all in the room could hear the door slamming far below. Two pairs of brown eyes watched the empty door for a long instant before they met involuntarily. Hermione picked up a book that she had taken from the Head's room from the bed next to her and left the room quickly, and headed for the porch, where an oil lamp and a comfortable swing waited. Ginny crossed the hall to her room, and a loud bang was heard a moment later.
After a long moment of silence, Luna looked across at Ron, "Ronald, would you like to play chess?" He just nodded and opened a drawer on his nightstand and proceeded to set up the board on his bed. The twins laughed at some private joke and vanished with a loud, dual CRACK.
11:15 pm
Harry had been sitting in the dark for over two hours when a vaguely ethereal presence seemingly materialized out of the night. The tip of a phoenix-cored, holly wand tracked to the figure, its tip already glowing red with the precursor of a stunner discharge, when he recognized her. "Luna." He muttered exasperatedly, "You should make some noise or something." She shrugged as she sat down next to him.
"All will work out in the end." Luna announced as if she were giving the score of a particularly boring Quidditch match. Her eyes had an odd glow to them as the moonlight caught her open, gazing expression.
"Luna, thanks for the vote of confidence, but in all honesty Voldemort does have years and years on me."
"I wasn't talking of that." She picked up a small branch from the ground next to her. "I need to have some protection against the Nargles, you know?" Harry just nodded.
He sat out in the dark for several more hours after Luna drifted away in her usual fashion. At about midnight he felt Hermione walk near to where he sat, but she left without a word after standing motionless for several minutes as if watching over him. Exactly how he knew it was she, he did not know, but he did. An hour after that encounter, he heard the stumbling sounds of Charlie and Bill as they returned from a night of revelry before the wedding. Remus Lupin seemed to be watching over them as they, so far, unsuccessfully attempted to climb the six-inch stair to the front porch and other than a hidden smile, he took no action.
A half hour after the more or less triumphant return of the two oldest Weasley children, Harry yawned deeply and bounced to his feet. No sound was heard from the house other than a soft hoot from Hedwig up in Harry's room as she annoyedly knocked Pig from her perch with a wing and settled in to take a nap. Deciding that he most likely would not get to sleep for a bit longer tonight, even as tired as he was, he took a turn into the kitchen.
Harry went directly to the icebox in the corner and extracted a large, glass bottle of milk. He filled a glass, and set a plate of cookies out on the counter to the side, when just as he was reaching to replace the milk, a soft purring sound came from down near his feet and a large, ginger half-kneazle rubbed on his legs. Harry glanced down to find Crookshanks looking up at him optimistically. He laughed and pulled a small saucer from a cupboard and filled it with milk for Hermione's cat. "Here ya go, ya big mooch" Harry muttered affectionately. Crookshanks' purring redoubled as he gave Harry's legs a final rub and started to lap up his milk.
"You know that he knows that you are a soft touch." Hermione said quietly from the door to the kitchen. Harry spun around to find her there, laughing slightly at him. She was dressed for bed; long, flannel tartan sleep pants were worn under a white spaghetti-strapped tank. Her hair was pulled back into a messy tail and thrown over one shoulder.
Harry gave her a sheepish look, "you know me, hopeless causes and small animals." He crossed to the table, bearing the plate of cookies in one hand and his glass of milk in the other. He set it down and looked at her, "do you want some?"
"Sure." Hermione crossed to the icebox, poured herself a glass of milk and sat down across the old, round scrubbed wooden kitchen table. "You know," she mused, softly, "He won't take food from Ron...it's the oddest thing." She took a bite of her cookie, "mmm, chocolate chip...I can't get these at home." Harry chuckled as her eyes danced for an instant.
"So Miss Granger...what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Harry asked as he dipped his cookie in his milk glass and took a bite. He swallowed as Crookshanks jumped up on the table and lay down, purring, between them. "Better not let Molly catch him on the table." Harry observed, Hermione just reached out and started petting her cat as she crooked an eyebrow upward.
"The usual," she said after a minute, "thinking." Crookshanks gave one last, loud purr and hopped off the table and headed up the stairs, probably having heard the squeak of a mouse. She watched him leave with an odd expression, almost as if her last reinforcement in some battle had left her alone on the field.
"You should really stop that." Harry cracked, "it might make you smart or something."
"Heaven forbid." She paused and ate her cookie contemplatively as she stared off into space. "Where and when are we going to start Harry?"
He knew what she was talking about. "I figure that we will leave in the morning after the wedding. We might as well get the sleep while we can, and the Burrow is about as secure as anywhere else." He shrugged tiredly, "then I guess...we go to the Hollow."
"Harry, I..."
"It's ok, Hermione," he said reassuringly, "It's kind of odd, now that I think about it that I've never been back, or that I've never asked about it rather. I figure that we will look about there and depending on what we find, either stay there for a bit or head back to London." Harry frowned. "We should go get some funds out of the vault and convert them to muggle cash, we need to get supplies, camping gear, food, other things. And then..." he smiled briefly, "we do what we do best, I act rashly, Ron either sides with me or not depending on his mood and you save both our sorry arses."
"Harry, you..." Hermione started but stopped as another presence entered the room. Ron looked blearily down at them, but perked up instantly at the sight of the plate of cookies.
"What are you two up to?" He asked with an odd tenor to his voice. He sat down at the table, unconsciously forming a triangle of the trio and started munching on cookies.
Harry eyed him for a minute. His eyes flicked surreptitiously between Hermione and Ron, noticing the sudden tension in her, something that very, very few others would catch, and the only moderate pace at which Ron was reducing the plate of cookies to crumbs. He let out a soft chuckle and to his credit; it wasn't forced-sounding at all. "Oh the usual Ron, I was outside brooding and Hermione was awake thinking...and now you are here eating."
Ron grinned at him suddenly and the tension in the room vanished, for now anyway. Harry nodded and continued on. "Hermione had just asked me when we are leaving, I told her, the morning after the wedding." Ron nodded and took another cookie. "Ron do you think that you could pack us up some rations, without your mum knowing? I want to get out of here as soon as possible with as little fuss as possible."
"Yeah mate, I think I can get something together." Ron replied around a mouthful of cookies. Hermione rolled her eyes at his manners and Harry ran his hand over his chin to hide his sudden grin.
"And don't eat them Ron." Hermione muttered, but she smiled as she did so. He laughed and nodded.
"Sure, Hermione, I'll try to remember." He replied sarcastically, Ron glanced over at Harry, "As we are on the subject, Fred dropped back by while you were out moping, they already had care packages made up for each of us. Seems they had an idea that something like this was going to happen. He said to tell you that they should have everything ready for the DA when school starts. There are some extra special toys in our gear too. I haven't looked into them yet though."
"Ok Ron, we'll look at them together." Harry stated and stood up with another yawn. "Guys...I just want to say, in case I don't get to later...thanks. You two are more than my best friends...you're my family, all I have left." Hermione's eyes were damp as she gave him a small smile. Ron just nodded. The pair of them watched Harry leave the kitchen and a moment later heard the soft squeak of trainers on the stairs.
Back in the kitchen, Hermione sighed and looked over at Ron. She looked down and played with her glass, spinning it slowly as she looked into its depths. A tired, half-smile played at the edge of her lips, as she looked up and met Ron's eyes. "This thing, whatever we have or had, isn't working Ron." She said quietly. White teeth captured her bottom lip as she glanced back down.
Ron looked at her and sighed. With a small grunt, he stood and paced over to the kitchen window and peered outside. In the bright moonlight, he could see the sparkle of part of the creek through the trees and a pair of raccoons looking for scraps at the edge of the woods. "So what, Hermione?" He finally asked, resignedly, "I'm not Harry?" Unlike this afternoon, his voice had no heat to it, only acquiescent resignation.
"No Ron," She said softly as she rose from her chair and joined him at the window. Her eyes were melancholy as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gently pulled him in for one, last, chaste kiss. She dropped her arms from his neck and stepped back, holding one of his hands in hers. "You are not, and in some ways that's the problem, but it's not the real problem with us."
"Then what is Hermione?"
She shrugged, "It's that we aren't compatible Ron, not in that way. You and I are on different wavelengths. Opposites may attract Ron, but they don't stay together. We don't talk, not really. You talk about Quidditch; I talk about books and learning. What we do talk about...is Harry, or Voldemort. And frankly one of those two topics is not one I want to while away my years with and the other, is our best friend. And when we are together, we force it." She squeezed his hand gently as he ran his fingers through sleep tousled ginger hair. "We talk about those things, or some utter nonsense because we can't stand the silence between us, and because we are too bloody stubborn to admit that we might have made a mistake."
"I just wanted..." He shook his head; "I thought that the arguing meant we loved each other, just like my mum and dad."
"Your mum and dad are weird." Hermione replied with a soft smile.
"Yeah, you're right" Ron shot back and they both cracked a quick grin. "So this is it, then?"
"I guess." Hermione closed in, rose up on her tiptoes and kissed Ron on the cheek. She walked to the door, and stopped. Tears were hanging unshed in the corner of her eyes as she turned back. "I do love you Ron...just not like you want me to."
"I know Hermione." Ron whispered, but she had already fled to the stairs and Ginny's room. Ron walked over to the icebox, removed the bottle of milk and returned to the table. Without another word or gesture, Ron attacked the cookies with renewed vigor.
A/N: There it is....